A noble deed on Guru Nanak Jayanti

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By Aparmita Das

Shillong:

On 30 November, 2020, the Sikhs all across the globe observed the 551st birth anniversary of Guru Nanak, the first of the ten Gurus of the Sikhs.

Over 500 years ago, Guru Nanak had started the Sikh concept of "Langar" which also means community kitchen, whereby Gurudwaras (Sikh temples) have an open kitchen that distributes free meals all day, to anyone, regardless of their faith, caste or creed.

Yesterday, the Khalsa Centre Group, Shillong and an NGO called makeSomeoneSMILE, joined hands to make a small gesture towards the society. Taking into consideration the current pandemic situation, the regular langar to visitors wasn’t feasible, so this is where both the groups teamed up to step out in the road and distribute food-packets (lunch) across a targeted area.

While all the preparation and execution work such as cutting of vegetables, cooking, etc began early morning, the distribution of food was done by mid-day. More than 250 lunch packets were distributed among city dwellers, all of which were accepted with smiles, prayers and best wishes for one another. The event was conducted with strict adherence to pandemic guidelines and safety for all.

The combined efforts of the two groups made the day a successful one and concluded with the intended message: “We may have different religions, different languages, different skin colour, but we all belong to 'ONE HUMAN RACE' with only one purpose and that is to Serve Humanity".